From the choice of Palin to his turning negative, to his latest confusion and furious attempts at backpedaling, most moderates I know just don’t trust his judgment.

Mr. Keating Five helped deregulate the industries that are now dragging America down. The rest of us are now going to pay for his coziness with big banking.

Exactly, he would have had another running mate … most likely Romney.

And you’re also right, he probably wouldn’t have gotten the big convention bounce. But realistically, the main difference would have been that Obama would have stayed ahead for the past few weeks … until His bounce faded … at which time we’d probably find the polls just about exactly where they are now anyway.

The big plus for McCain would be, that he would have a credible running mate. And more importantly, if his “straight talker” reputation was still intact (and I think any body would have a hard time arguing that it is), some of the contradictions in his previous record would Not matter nearly as much.

If we could honestly believe that McCain was leveling with us, giving us the straight scoop now, I think a lot of people would be more willing to overlook some of his past contradictory positions.

No way now though. As someone who has admired John McCain in the past, anything he says today, I just can’t tell whether it’s what he really thinks, or what his campaign advisers told him to say.

Bottom line, I don’t trust him (or his judgment).

… and somehow, I don’t think I’m alone amongst moderate voters.

Todd

If he hired Murphy then he would’ve had another running mate and maybe not have received such a bump after the RNC. As for his ‘maverick’ qualities, check out these points made in a recent WaPo article:

“A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth.”…. “Government has a clear responsibility to act in defense of the public interest, and that’s exactly what I intend to do,” a fiery McCain said at a rally in Tampa yesterday. “In my administration, we’re going to hold people on Wall Street responsible. And we’re going to enact and enforce reforms to make sure that these outrages never happen in the first place.”
But as Senator, in 1999, “McCain had joined with other Republicans to push through landmark legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm (Tex.), who is now an economic adviser to his campaign. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act aimed to make the country’s financial institutions competitive by removing the Depression-era walls between banking, investment and insurance companies.” It’s all about credibility, my friend!

Now, to be fair, McCain has broke with his party many times to reveal his maverick side, and this John McCain would’ve had a good chance to win my vote this election. Since then he’s completely turned me off with his campaign, esp since he hired this current team and picked his VP choice. OMG what was he thinking!

I still think that deep down inside, John McCain IS the “straight talking Maverick”.

For past couple of months (because he’s been convinced it’s his “best” chance of winning) though, he’s tried to be a “message man” who says what he needs to, to try to appeal to various interest groups.

Unfortunately for him, he’s just not very good at it … because it’s not who he really is.

I predict the gaffs will keep coming.

… not because John McCain is a “bad” man. But because it would hard for any of us to keep our stories straight when we first have to go ask Steve Schmitt what our message is this week.

And yes, I know that Obama has advisors, and a message. But his biggest advantage is that the message has remained essentially unchanged (little play on words there) since the very beginning of his campaign.

http://pabloonpolitics.com/lo_pig.htm